Solomon Kassa Made Technology Make Sense — in Amharic, to Millions

Every ecosystem needs a translator — someone who can take the jargon of technology and make it land for an ordinary audience, in their own language. For Ethiopia, that person has, for years, been Solomon Kassa.

Prime-time science, in the mother tongue

Kassa is the producer and host of TechTalk with Solomon, a weekly science and technology program broadcast on prime time on EBS, one of the most popular private satellite networks reaching millions of Ethiopians at home and across the diaspora. The show's quiet radicalism is its language: Kassa presents in Amharic, deliberately bringing STEM to audiences usually left out of the English-dominated global tech conversation.

That choice has had outsized cultural impact. For many young Ethiopians, TechTalk was the first place they saw their own future in technology described as something attainable.

Diaspora training, national mission

Kassa's credentials are global. He moved to the United States in 2004, earned a bachelor's in computer programming from Strayer University (2008) and a master's in Information Systems Technology Management from The George Washington University (2011), and has worked as a technology consulting manager at a Fortune 500 firm. He has also authored a book on Ethiopia's innovation journey and spoken on global stages including the ITU's AI for Good.

The recognition has followed. He received the 2016 SEED award for his commitment to teaching science and technology in Amharic, and in 2017 Ethiopia's Ministry of Science and Technology named him an ambassador of science and technology for advancing STEM in the country.

From storyteller to builder

In 2020, Kassa founded 1888EC, a startup studio he describes as the first-of-its-kind in Ethiopia — a vehicle to not just talk about innovation but to finance and build it. It is the logical next move for someone who spent a decade growing the audience and the appetite; now he's building the machine to turn that appetite into companies.

Why it matters

Media and ecosystems rise together. The reason Forbes.et can exist at all is that people like Kassa spent years convincing a nation that technology was its story to tell. He built the audience. He shaped the narrative. And by moving into a studio model, he's putting capital and structure behind the founders his own show helped inspire.

Success leaves clues. Kassa's is that you can't build a tech economy without first building belief in it — and that the person who builds the belief is often the one best positioned to build what comes next.

Sources:

• TechTalk with Solomon — About
• solomonkassa.com
• Tadias Magazine — Interview with Solomon Kassa
• ITU AI for Good — Solomon Kassa

Editorial note: Confirm current role/title and any recent 1888EC portfolio news before publishing.